Journal of International Business Studies最新文献

With multinational corporations (MNCs) increasingly taking public stances on sociopolitical issues such as immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, and racism, it is imperative that international business (IB) research keeps pace with normative societal debates. In this paper, we introduce the concept of corporate sociopolitical activism (SPA) to the IB literature and develop a theory on why MNCs consistently or inconsistently engage in SPA in response to the same issue in their home country and a host country. We theorize that institutional complexity at three levels of analysis – within a host country, between home and host countries, and beyond the home and host countries – shapes MNCs’ decisions. This paper contributes to the IB literature by situating SPA as a new area within international nonmarket strategy research. In addition, we extend IB research on institutional complexity by theorizing how heterogeneity within a host country influences MNCs’ behaviors. We also expand the focus of the literature on corporate SPA from domestic firms to MNCs. Overall, this paper represents a call to action for IB researchers to examine MNCs’ responses to sociopolitical issues in an increasingly polarized world.

Emerging extended reality (XR) technologies, such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), enable global businesses to deliver immersive experiences to customers beyond geographical borders. Despite the opportunities, leveraging XR innovations in foreign markets can present significant challenges. This study investigates whether and under what conditions global businesses experience liability of foreignness (LOF) when leveraging XR innovations. We argue that LOF in XR innovations arises from the inherent disadvantages foreign firms face in delivering mentally fluent XR experiences, which in turn can diminish the effectiveness of their XR innovations compared to local counterparts. We further contend that the extent of LOF in XR innovations varies depending on the features of XR technology, with greater LOF in less realistic, more interactive, and more vivid XR innovations. We also suggest that foreign businesses can mitigate LOF by strategically leveraging brand newness and brand platforms. Our empirical analyses, based on a dataset of 257 beauty brands in South Korea from 2019 to 2022, support the presence of LOF in XR innovations and show how technology features and brand-specific factors influence the extent of LOF. Our findings provide valuable insights for global businesses developing strategies to configure immersive technologies in international markets.

This essay revisits my 2014 JIBS article about the potential for integrating international business internalization theory with a strategic management capabilities perspective. It recaps the capabilities framework with an emphasis on the learning required of emerging market multinationals and illustrates this with the case of Hyundai Motor Company’s internationalization and growth. It also discusses two aspects of the global economy that have become more prominent since 2014 in shaping international business: geopolitical uncertainty and digitalization. A rise in geopolitical tensions appears to be rebalancing the relationships between multinationals and home/host governments. Digitalization facilitates international business; but it adds new vulnerabilities by (further) accelerating competition, enabling new rivals, and introducing systemic risks into digital supply chains. Implications for managers, board members, and international business scholars are drawn.

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) can be agents of positive climate action by deploying their vast resources, technology, capital, and collaborative partnerships. They can also promote cross-border mobility of corporate governance and regulatory standards. Allen et al. (J Int Bus Stud, 2024) provide a systematic descriptive analysis to support such an MNE role. In my commentary, I provide a perspective from low-income countries, particularly Africa. Although they face disproportionate climate impact, these economies possess abundant clean energy resources. I discuss the potential of MNEs to help unlock the value associated with these resources. On the financing side, MNE banks can deploy their technology and resources to promote climate finance startups. They can also play a role in public–private partnerships to unlock private capital at scale for low-income countries. Allen et al. focus on the bright side of the MNEs in climate action. I expand my commentary to provide a balanced view and discuss the dark side with a focus on Africa. In particular, I highlight the role of MNE banks in rapid sovereign debt build-up and difficulties in debt restructuring. Further, I discuss the role of MNEs in capital flight. Successful debt distress resolutions and curbing capital flight can free up resources for green financing.

Climate change and the associated issue of curbing carbon emissions have risen on the agenda of policymakers worldwide. However, global coordination on matters such as harmonized regulation has been subject to significant political frictions, and the large intergovernmental transfers needed to finance the transition of developing economies have proven hard to raise. Recently, there have been considerable responses to climate change from the private sector, with stakeholders placing more pressure on firms, and financial markets mobilizing increasingly more capital towards the reduction of negative externalities. We argue that although multinational enterprises (MNEs) have been a major contributor to the problem, they can be an important part of the solution – they have unique features that enable them to play an important role in the fight against climate change. MNEs have extensive and efficient internal markets for governance, financing, and technology, which enable them to circumvent country-specific frictions to climate action such as heterogeneous regulation, corruption, and the lack of technology. We analyze how different public and private incentive mechanisms could be designed to leverage MNEs’ unique features, realign their incentives, and engage their potential to play a role in decarbonizing the economy. Lastly, we discuss challenges, opportunities, and future research.

Despite thorough attention to how context shapes subsidiary behavior, very little IB research has explored the dynamic impact of disruptive changes in historical context on organizational innovations in MNEs. Existing IB theory has robustly theorized the growth of competence-creating subsidiaries from the 1980s to the 2000s. However, our historical research demonstrates that this body of existing theory fails to explain an equally significant growth in subsidiaries with protean competence-creating characteristics from 1945 to 1970. We show that the introduction of the U.K. National Health Service in 1948 precipitated a major upgrade of research capabilities among a near majority of the population of subsidiaries in U.K. pharmaceuticals by 1970. Synthesizing from both IB and literature on historical methods, we analyze the impact of this disruptive transformation in context, identifying the specific mechanisms that produced the rapid growth in what we identify as proto-competence-creating subsidiaries. This occurred in response to a dramatically new context, in ways that differ from those predicted by current theoretical explanations, and led to an institutional innovation hitherto unknown to IB. The implications of this are significant in a contemporary moment of rapid institutional disruption, when existing conceptualizations of subsidiary behavior may increasingly fail to capture real-world dynamics.

Host-country corruption discourages multinational firms’ foreign investments. Nonetheless, multinationals may still want to invest to benefit from local business opportunities. To deal with the challenges of operating in a corrupt host country, they can use experience gained in other corrupt countries. We distinguish between “clean hands” and “dirty hands” learning about corruption – that is to say, learning how to avoid bribing, or learning how to pay bribes and avoid traceability. We disentangle these two competing mechanisms, which were confounded in previous studies, by assessing how home-country enforcement of laws against bribery abroad modifies how prior experience in corrupt countries mitigates the discouraging effect of host-country corruption on investment. We propose that, under clean hands learning, home-country enforcement strengthens the mitigating influence whereas, under dirty hands learning, home-country enforcement weakens this influence. Results from analyzing the location choices made by 25,067 multinationals from 97 countries for their 91,371 greenfield investments in 101 countries from 2008 to 2016 reveal that corruption experience mitigates the discouraging influence of host country corruption but that home country enforcement of laws against bribery reverses this influence. This is consistent with the view that dirty hands learning prevails over clean hands learning.

Allen et al. (J Int Bus Stud, 2024) present a compelling argument that MNEs can play a role in mitigating climate change by utilizing their vast resources, technological advancements, and global reach. They provide a broad set of suggestions of what MNEs can do to advance sustainability across borders but leave the critical question of why MNEs would engage in this effort less explored. In reflecting on their work, I suggest that sustainable MNE initiatives require an interplay of both extrinsic and intrinsic drivers, encompassing stakeholder pressures, regulatory frameworks, and private and public incentives; and recognition by the firms themselves of how climate mitigation could support their strategy and self-interest. The more MNEs recognize the intrinsic benefits of climate-mitigation action in advancing their strategic vision and organizational legitimacy, the greater the likelihood that sustainable practices will become ingrained in their business models, enhancing employee engagement and competitive outcomes, while also contributing positively to societal well-being.

Teece (J Int Bus Stud 45(1):8–37, 2014) identifies two theories of the emergence of multinational enterprises (MNEs)—one that focuses on how MNEs solve transactional difficulties that can emerge in market exchanges and another that focuses on how MNEs facilitate economic value creation that is difficult to realize through market exchanges—and suggests that both theories are important in understanding MNE emergence. However, the organizational and managerial implications of these two theories are very different. MNEs that solve transactional difficulties are typically hierarchical in nature, where senior managers exercise managerial fiat to direct subordinates, firm boundaries are well defined, and subordinate behavior is monitored to minimize opportunism. MNEs that create economic value are typically less hierarchical, involve the creation of cooperative relations among stakeholders to facilitate co-specialized investments, have less well-defined boundaries, and reduce the threat of opportunism by ensuring that stakeholders gain more continuing in this exchange than other exchanges. The organizational and managerial implications of these two theories suggest that MNEs that form to both solve transactional difficulties and to create economic value will face difficult challenges trying to reconcile the organizational and management imperatives implied by these theories. This paper concludes by discussing how MNEs might address these organizational and managerial conflicts.

A substantial body of literature has shown that political connections have benefited firms domestically, but their cross-border value for multinational enterprises (MNEs) remains understudied. This paper provides novel evidence on the strategic advantages MNEs gain through political ties in host countries and the consequences for domestic firms. Examining foreign companies’ contributions to US political campaigns through political action committees (PACs) sponsored by their US subsidiaries, we find that contributing foreign firms win significantly more U.S. government contracts than non-contributing foreign firms. Crucially, this increased access for foreign contributing firms crowds out government contract allocation to similar domestic firms that do not make political donations, even in regulated industries favoring domestic suppliers. Our findings demonstrate that MNEs can effectively leverage political connections as a non-market strategy to gain preferential treatment over local competitors in a host nation. However, these cross-border political ties come at the expense of domestic firms’ competitiveness, informing policy debates around restricting foreign corporate influence in domestic elections. From a managerial perspective, our findings suggest that strategic political ties are an important consideration for MNEs alongside traditional location factors when evaluating foreign investment decisions and navigating institutional complexities abroad.